Resolved, that the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation--the first Flag Act passed in 1777

This resolution for a national union may seem quaint since the American flag has developed into a 50-star constellation, and the history of American Studies has gone through dramatic changes in tandem with the historical changes of the status of the US. American Studies predominantly centered on the history of that constellation has recently been "decentralize[d]" to explore the histories of those orbiting the American constellation. For one, transnationalism was among the recent theoretical efforts to reconfigure and remap American Studies. However, American Studies still remains very much within the bounds of a single constellation centering on the US. Boldly hypothesizing that the American constellation and other national constellations are orbiting one another (or is it the American constellation orbiting other national constellations?), we propose to re-center American Studies on separate, parallel and/or intertwined histories of the diverse constellations. To initiate this re-centering, we invite scholars from all over our earthly galaxy to engage in center-less, multi-directional exchanges. The constellations of American Studies thus created will, to borrow Walter Benjamin's vision, configure "moments of the past into a shape with present meaning" and illuminate changes for the trans-constellational future of American Studies. Papers on any local and global and/or traditional and non-traditional aspects of American Studies are welcome. We especially welcome theorization of multi-directional, trans-constellational approaches to American Studies.